The Third Wheel's Encumbrance

00 – a look inside their heads.

He’s late, she thought, tapping her fingers at the popcorn counter. They had made it crystal clear; 12:40pm, the theatres across from SQ1. God forbid he had processed the information wrongly (again) and had gone inside the humongous mall, now waiting at the significantly more expensive theatres and wondering if he was at the wrong spot or if they were at the wrong spot. But because everyone was at the other choice, he was the one who was wrong.

“It’s okay, Andrea. He’ll come, he’s not (that) stupid.”

Andrea smiled gratefully to her friend, though still slightly irritated. She took off the polka-dotted black and white headband and smoothed back her bobbed dirty blonde hair, idly fixing her bangs and then re-positioning the headband. If only she had chosen someone a little more competent then Brian… although his humor and looks made up for the idiocy that he sometimes (more like most of the time) presented to the crowd.

Andrea looked at her friend, the one who had soothed her, who was now talking with her boyfriend. Celia, the girl, had always been the most comforting and optimistic one of the group, her shy and down to earth nature eternally shining through. Always there to lend a helping hand, she had a smile that hid many of the other things she felt behind her soft and cordial eyes and calm disposition. Though Celia was told continually that it was wrong to do that by the group advice giver (you’ll learn about her later), she seemed to feel a pull towards those in need.

A sense much like that of a superhero, the advice giver speculated.

But though Celia had been the comforter and the fall back girl for a long time, the advice giver was glad that Celia too had found her match. Bram, who was probably like an everlasting patient for Celia, was not very… emotionally stable. Though yes, he, like most other guys, felt the need to be ‘macho’ and ‘manly’, he had a side of him which was completely unstable and rocky because he had been bullied (because of his unmanliness, so the advice giver supposes that he feels an extra need to be ‘heroic’ with Celia). Luckily for him, the advice giver and the rest of the group had taken him in like a bird with a broken wing, nursing him back to health and becoming his support system.

Especially Celia.

That was mainly why they were so great for each other; she was satisfied with someone to help and he was satisfied with someone to help him.

Though there was someone else that Celia helped a lot, he had somewhat drifted from her when his fundamental and core problem had been solved; Celia’s twin brother, Jake, who also was in a relationship. Like Bram, Jake was emotionally unstable. But no one knew why, so no one could tear down the mask that he seemed to always have, a façade of selective permeability, which was horrid tough to get through.

He would seem cold and stoic at most times, choosing silence over noise, choosing solitude over company. And for much of the group, he was only half figured out. Intelligent and the kind of guy every girl likes at least once, he was bound to get a girlfriend sometime soon.

And he did. Though it was a shock for many of the people around him, those who looked closer would see how much he really needed it and how much it helped him. The advice giver nodded approvingly in his direction while they waited for foolish Brian. The advice giver, who schemed most things and provoked all things. Jake and Jenny, ‘his girl’, looked at her weird.

“Don’t worry Jenny, she’s not always like that.” He whispered to her jokingly.

“Hah, Jake, don’t be an idiot. I know her better than you do!” she retorted, defending the friend who had yet to realize that they had noticed her odd actions.

Jenny had a sharp tongue paired with a bright disposition. Her chirpiness was a breath of fresh air to the pessimism of Jake, thus dragging him from the side of the shadow to that of the light. Without offering cookies or briberies, which had been somewhat of a miracle, really, she was able to, in a sense, warm his heart and persona. This came at everyone’s great pleasure, for it had been long since they had seen him so innocent and child-like. A good change, indubitably.

“No way!” Jake bit back childishly. “I’ve known her longer, so I definitely know her better!”

“Nuh uh. Anna! Anna!” Jenny brought Anna from her daydreams back to the present argument. “Don’t I know you better than he does?!”

“Um.” The advice giver pondered for a moment, looking between the two rapidly and trying to choose. On one hand, he knew her longer. On the other, she was told more and was a valuable clientele that she needed to be kept happy…

Not being able to settle on a response, she shrugged.

“You both know me… equally?” she tried desperately, hoping that the answer would satisfy the two of them. By the looks on their faces, it hadn’t really worked.

“I’M HERE!” a shrill voice yelled, though still deep enough to tell that it was a boy, saving Anna from more interrogation.

Andrea turned briskly and was abruptly wrapped into a bear hug by Brian. Feeling slightly uncomfortable and crushed, she wriggled out of his grasp and they immediately started to banter and argue. Which, of course, set off Celia’s superhero powers as she tried to crack the argument and calm the two raring teens down. Which in turn set off Bram’s need for attention, slightly irritating the, (though optimistic), easily annoyed Jenny who became more and more irked as Bram nipped at Celia’s heels like a lost puppy. Jake, being the person who was most able to calm Jenny down, desperately tried to, although their recent argument had set a mock-grudge on him from her.

In the lobby of Famous Players, Anna ran a hand tiredly through her choppy chin-to-shoulder length black hair, hastily realizing the odd looks she got from passerbies. She smirked to herself. It would be pretty weird to see a bunch of couples and then the third wheel (more like the 7th wheel) all by herself, to the side of the arguing group. For a second, the amused expression fades and a more sorrowful look replaces it, as if a mask had been taken off and another put on.

Sometimes, it wasn’t so great being the third wheel. Sometimes, it was lonely and tedious, it was like watching someone eat an ice cream on a hot day right in front of you, so close that you can feel the cold radiating from the cone, yet unable to do anything but lick your lips and wish you had one too.

She shook these thoughts from her mind and thought of other things.

I don’t really want to be here anymore… the thoughts drifted back into her head without her consent. No! They need me… she tried convincing herself.

But she didn’t need to, because she knew it was true.

Even though the category of angsty and hormone-pumped teens was supposed to include her, she liked to think of herself as more of an equalizer to when they were like…

She cast a glance yet again to the arguing bunch.

… when they were like that.

When they were like that, she was often the only one who could intervene and calm all of them at once. Smiling and confident once more (though it never quite lasted), she knew what she had to do.

“GUYS!” she screamed at the ball of moody couples, gaining their attention immediately with the loud voice and commanding pull of her words.

“Brian and Andrea, get over it, we all understand that Brian was bound to get something
confused.” Brian seemed to want to interrupt, but immediately shut up when the rest of the group cast him a “look”.

“Celia, it’s okay, you’re on a date too—” both she and Bram blushed at the word, “—so have fun, I’ll handle the other stuff!” They smiled at each other and she looked at Anna gratefully.

At the side, the continual bickering between Jake and Jenny was like the buzzing of a bee or mosquito as it came closer and closer.

“I’m telling you, buttered popcorn is better! It’s got a better taste, it tastes better—”

“That was the same thing! Jeez Jake, and we all thought you were somewhat sm—”

“Please! Who’s the one who walked right into a door?”

“I thought you were going to open it for me!”

“Well—”

“And you two!” Anna huffed, taking them both by the ear and enjoying their wincing. “You both know me equally and a lot, which means that you shouldn’t even be mad at each other because neither of you knows me more or less. So stop arguing and go make up or something!”

Finishing the long rant, it left the crowd in its usual silence of awe, the passerby’s giggling at the weird site of couples all standing around one girl. But Anna didn’t mind.

Finally, the settled group got their tickets and made their way towards the cinema room. But that feeling of despair and loneliness set in again as they took their seats, though she was between two couples rather than at the very side. It was a move carefully thought out by the group in order to make her feel less of that feeling.

But the movie they were watching was a chick flick, and however she denied it, seeing the couples around her only succeeded in making her feel worse.

But it’s okay, I’m doing a favor for all of them, she continually said to herself. Without me, they’d probably still be in the lobby, yeah…

The lie she told herself was able to temporarily calm that feeling in her stomach as the movie started and she immersed herself in the story, ignoring all else that happened around her.

But living on lies would never be able to satisfy the seemingly insatiable feeling that was growing inside of her. This feeling that would keep eating at her, this feeling that would provoke what this whole story is about.

The neutral third wheel’s encumbrance, burdens and weights and how she overcame it all with many crumbled and ruined lies and one simple truth.

Pwease?

(this would be where I'd reply to those who reviewed... unfortunately this part is empty. For now. I mean, it's just my first chapter. The first of many (hopefully). I should stop talking now...

3!

-chewyy.